Singleness, Sexuality, and the Dream of Marriage

Frahm-Arp, Maria

doi:10.1163/15700666-12341238

Cited by 41 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…It gives a glimpse of the Church's perceptions on single women and also the gender politics at play within the women's forums, outside the domain of perceived male dictators and oppressors. Does this signify a retrogression from Frahm-Arp (2012) claims that in South Africa, Pentecostalism open new space for the acceptance of singlehood, or it affirms Gilbert ( 2004) 's claim that Pentecostalism is a religion often founded by women who usurp their place? This opens doors of inquiry into the realities of being a single woman in Church and society and scrutinising the authors of discourses and their impact on single women.…”

Section: The Wounded Beast… Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“The wounded Beast?” - Single Women, Tradition, and the Bible in Zimbabwe

Biri¹

2021

Bible in Africa Studies

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BiAS 28/ ERA 6 captures the experiences of single women in Zimbabwe. It brings out the indigenous cultural socialisations that negatively impact on them. The vibrancy of Pentecostalism did not save them from stigma and negative perceptions but rather fuels their challenges and misery. The over-glorification of marriage over and above singlehood and in extreme cases denunciation of singlehood, has implications for single women, especially for those who have divorced. The attitudes and perceptions towards single women in the families, society and Church are largely adversarial and do not attach dignity and value, in a nation where marriage and motherhood remain important and cherished statuses. Therefore, the author adopts a multi-dimensional approach in analysing and critiquing the pitfalls of Shona indigenous cultures, limitations of Pentecostal gender ideology and proffers avenues that can create safe spaces for single women.

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Section: The Wounded Beast… Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“The wounded Beast?” - Single Women, Tradition, and the Bible in Zimbabwe

Biri¹

2021

Bible in Africa Studies

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“…Writing about early Igbo Christian converts, Bastian (2000) highlights how the Catholic mission in south-east Nigeria was integral in teaching both Biblical knowledge and domesticity, creating a new class of person. More recently, analyses of African Christianity have picked up on how Pentecostal ministries provide healthcare and advice on relationships and sexuality, allowing young women to take ownership of parts of their lives (Bochow and van Dijk 2012); how Pentecostalism allows young South African women to enjoy financial success without compromising spirituality (Frahm-Arp 2012); and how Brazilian Pentecostalism in Mozambique preaches that young women should take control of their bodies in battling traditional marine spirits (van de Kamp 2011).…”

Section: ‘Grace and Beauty’: The Pageant Campmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Be Graceful, Patient, Ever Prayerful’: Negotiating Femininity, Respect and the Religious Self in a Nigerian Beauty Pageant

Gilbert¹

2015

Africa

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Beauty pageants in Nigeria have become highly popular spectacles, the crowned winners venerated for their beauty, success and ability to better society through charity. This paper focuses on the Carnival Calabar Queen pageant, highlighting how pageants, at the nexus of gender and the nation, are sites of social reproduction by creating feminine ideals. A divinely inspired initiative of a fervently Pentecostal First Lady, the pageant crowns an ambassador for young women's rights. While the queen must have ‘grace and beauty’ and be ‘ever prayerful’, the discussion unravels emic conceptions of feminine beauty, religiosity and respectability. Yet, young women also use pageantry as a ‘platform’ for success, hoping to challenge the double bind of gender and generation they experience in Nigeria. The discussion pays particular attention to how young women, trying to overcome the insecurities of (urban) Nigerian life, make choices to negotiate individualism with community, and piety with patriarchy. Ethnographically, this paper situates beauty pageants in the region's past and present practices that mould feminine subjectivities. Contributing young women's experiences to recent literature on the temporalities of African youth, the paper's explicit focus on how new subjectivities form through action illuminates important themes regarding agency, resistance and notions of the religious self. In doing so, it furthers current analyses of Pentecostalism, seeking a more nuanced understanding of gender reconfiguration and demonstrating how religious subjects can be formed outside church institutions.

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“…People in churches are encouraged to speak openly about matters of sexuality, thus transforming local practices of secrecy that prevail in traditional religious contexts [10,17,21,22]. Moreover, these teachings contribute to a moral revaluation of social conditions that in African contexts tend to be stigmatized, such as singleness [23], infertility [24] and the bearing of children outside the marital bond [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dilemmas of Monogamy: Pleasure, Discipline and the Pentecostal Moral Self in the Republic of Benin

Quiroz

2016

Religions

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Based on ethnographic research in the Republic of Benin, this article explores how Pentecostal teachings on marriage and the management of sexual pleasure contribute to shaping converts' moral selves. For Pentecostals, fidelity towards God, when single and fidelity between partners, once married, is presented as the ideal model of partnership to which every "Born-Again" should aspire. In the context where polygamous unions are socially accepted, Pentecostal pastors teach that a satisfactory sexual life restricted to marriage is the means of building successful monogamous unions. However, sexual satisfaction might not always guarantee marital success, especially when people face problems of infertility. The author suggests that the disciplinary regimes that these teachings promote contribute to shaping new modes of intimacy, which are compatible with societal changes but often contradict the extant social norms and ideals of reproduction. Moral dilemmas arising from this tension are the key to understanding how Pentecostal Christianity shapes the moral self. The article addresses how Pentecostals in Benin navigate and negotiate cultural continuities and discontinuities in relation to church authority and family life.

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Singleness, Sexuality, and the Dream of Marriage

Cited by 41 publications

References 39 publications

“The wounded Beast?” - Single Women, Tradition, and the Bible in Zimbabwe

“The wounded Beast?” - Single Women, Tradition, and the Bible in Zimbabwe

‘Be Graceful, Patient, Ever Prayerful’: Negotiating Femininity, Respect and the Religious Self in a Nigerian Beauty Pageant

The Dilemmas of Monogamy: Pleasure, Discipline and the Pentecostal Moral Self in the Republic of Benin

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